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Workshop Force Fields 2014

From 3 to 5 November, the NIC Research Group "Computational Materials Physics" will organize the workshop "Force Fields 2014 - From Atoms to Materials" at JSC. Force fields are, and will remain in the future, an indispensable tool for studying many-particle systems ranging from simple metals or ceramics to chemically heterogeneous systems including composite materials or biological molecules. The main advantage of force fields is their modest computational cost compared to first-principle-based approaches. However, in order to be both accurate and transferable, effective potentials need to be constructed properly to reflect the intricate quantum mechanics responsible for interatomic bonding and repulsion. Despite great progress during the last few decades, an abundance of materials cannot yet be simulated meaningfully in terms of classical force fields, in particular when defects, bond breaking, or chemical reactions matter.

The goal of the workshop is to focus on the construction of classical force fields while considering a broad variety of models such as bond-order, polarizable, charge-transfer, and embedded-atom potentials. It aims at informal discussions, a free exchange of ideas, and at the creation of new collaborations. Further information is available at http://www.fz-juelich.de/ias/jsc/ForceFields2014.
(Contact: Prof. Martin Müser, m.mueser@fz-juelich.de)